Scarica Joyce's Ulysses (stream of consciousness) e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! INTRODUCTION JOYCE AND HOMER James Joyce set the plot and the theme of his novel ‘Ulysses’ around the journey; in particular, he based the framework of his novel on the structure of one of the greatest and most influential works in world literature, The Odyssey, by Homer. In this epic poem of ancient Greece, Homer presented the journey of life as a heroic adventure. On the other hand, Joyce indeed depicted the life of his protagonist as a journey, following the steps of Homer, but he represents this journey as humdrum, dreary, and uneventful. The adventures of Bloom consist of getting breakfast, feeding his cat, going to a funeral, doing legwork for his job, visiting pubs or restaurants, and thinking about his unfaithful wife…. and, at first, they seem to not have nothing common with the epic tale of Odysseus, than while he was coming home to Ithaca, after the Trojan War, he encountered many perils–including giants, angry gods, and monsters. However, the activities of Joyce’s Ulysses, in some way, are parallel to the adventured of Homer’s Odysseus. Let’s just think about the chapter named “Hades”, in which Bloom is attending at a funeral, and this activity parallel with the episode in the Odyssey, in which Odysseus visited Hades. Furthermore, there are other parallelisms; for instance: - Bloom's unfaithful wife, Molly, represents the faithful wife of Ulysses, Penelope; - a young aspiring writer, Stephen Dedalus, represents the son of Ulysses, Telemachus, who searches for his father. Although Dedalus is not Bloom's son, Dedalus nonetheless is depicted as searching for a father figure to replace his own drunken father. SETTINGS The action in Joyce's novel takes place in Dublin, Ireland, and the shore east of Dublin on the Irish Sea. The entire story develops on a single day of Bloom’s life: on June 16, 1904; and the reasons why Joyce chose this date is because it was when he met his inamorata, Nora Barnacle. Divisions of the Novel Ulysses is divided into three main sections, as follows: - Section 1 (that goes from chapter 1 to chapter 3) : in this first section the focus is on Stephen Dedalus, a young aspiring writer who has just returned from Paris; and it presents Stephen's life on a typical day in which he finds Dublin depressing. He is pessimistic about realizing his dream to become a published author. Section 2 (Chapters 4-15): in this second section, furthermore, the focus is on Leopold Bloom, a Jewish advertising representative; and It presents his voyage through an ordinary day in Dublin. Joyce describes in detail both Dublin and Bloom, presenting his free-flowing thoughts (many of them are about his unfaithful wife, Molly, or other women). Section 3 (Chapters 16-18): in this last section the focus is on Leopold, Stephen, and Molly. Bloom and Dedalus meet each other. Dedalus goes to Bloom's home and talks with him for several hours. The novel ends with a chapter on Molly. It consists of more than 30 pages occupied by seven sentences with no punctuation except for the period at the end of the novel.
